In 1925 and nearly 40 years after the invention of the crimped top bottle cap, Thomas C. Hamilton was granted a patent for the first wall mounted bottle opener. Production began almost immediately in the basement of Raymond Browns Newport News (state of Virginia) Coca-Cola bottling plant, by the newly founded Brown Mfg. co - and so the now famous Starr bottle opener was born. Modified again in 1943 to prevent the cap sticking in the jaws of the opener, the design has remained unchanged ever since, essentially because it works.